Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Yashpal Saxena has
continued to reject the attempts to politicise his son’s death, and wants Ankit
to be an inspiration for those in inter-faith relationships...

The event, he said, was a “starting point” for the trust he has established in Ankit’s name to help couples who want to marry outside their faith

The father of a young Delhi man killed
over his relationship with a Muslim woman is organising an iftar this Ramzan to
ensure love, not hatred, marks his son’s legacy. Ankit Saxena, a
23-year-old photographer, was stabbed to death by the family members of his
long-term girlfriend in February this year, a cold-blooded murder
fundamentalists hijacked to push their agenda of polarisation.

But Yashpal Saxena has
continued to reject the attempts to politicise his son’s death, and wants Ankit
to be an inspiration for those in inter-faith relationships. With this in mind,
on 3 June, Saxena will organise an iftar in his locality, west Delhi’s
Raghubir Nagar. The event, Yashpal
said, was a “starting point” for the trust he has established in Ankit’s name
to help couples who want to marry outside their faith. Even though the trust
has not yet been registered - it will be in “just a few more days”, Yashpal
says - the iftar can be considered its first event, he added. “Arrangements for the
iftar are being made by members of the trust along with other family members
and friends… Since we are inexperienced in these matters, we will reach out and
seek help from like-minded people,” he added.

“The iftar will be
held at the local park near our society. We keep going to the local police
station to follow up on the progress of the investigation and hence our first
invite went to the officers there,” Yashpal said. Others on the guest list
include the representatives of a few NGOs. “Only like-minded
people are invited,” he added. “We are talking to whomever we meet and
extending our invitation. We hope that the invitation goes around through word
of mouth and like-minded people join us,” he added. “This is just an
attempt to further our cause of communal harmony,” Yashpal told ThePrint, “We
want our son’s name to be synonymous with this cause.”

With communal passions
seemingly easy to inflame of late, and self-styled moral policemen reportedly
disrupting inter-faith weddings, does Yashpal fear a backlash against his
initiative? “So far, there has
been no negative reaction to our initiative,” he said, “If anybody does (oppose
it), it is going to be by those who are anti-social and want to create an
issue.” “We will pass on our
message of tolerance to whomever we meet. To those who do not agree with me, I
simply fold my hands before them and wish them well,” he added.

Police in Khyala,
where Ravinder Nagar falls, said they doubted anyone would try to create
trouble at the iftar. Talking to ThePrint, Khyala (West) station house officer
Sunil Kumar Bamnia said the situation in Raghubir Nagar was now normal, with no
communal tension in the area. “There were attempts to communalise the
situation, but it never took hold here,” he added. “And now that this party is
being held for Muslims, the issue is pretty much over.”